Attorney General Eric Holder says the spirit of the 1963 March on Washington now demands equal rights for gays, Latinos, women and people with disabilities.

Speaking before tens of thousands of people on the National Mall, the nation’s first black attorney general praised those who faced repression and brutality to march a half century ago. He thanked them for standing up to “racist governments and governors.”

Without them, he said, he’d never be the attorney general and Barack Obama would not be president.

The anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech is Wednesday but anniversary events began Saturday morning. Organizers expected about 100,000 people.